Transcript of "Visual Rhetoric, 2-25-13"

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TODAY1) Guests and video and adapting, oh my!2) Quickly: what do we need to do?3) Post-video break4) Graphics: how do they work?5) Group time6) Homework

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Our guestsToday we are lucky to have some of the studentsfrom the ACE program here to visit with us.We’re going to do two things:1)Capture some interview video2)Talk with them about the documents we havedone so far.

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With video…Just a quick reminder of some things to rememberwith video.1)Make sure you’re getting good sound.2)Don’t forget the rule of thirds/to frame yourinterviewee

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The Rule of Thirds isbasically this: think ofyour visual images(including video footage)as being broken into 9quadrants, like the imageto the side. Key elementsshould appear at theintersections or on thelines themselves. In otherwords, don’t put aninterview participantdead center in the frame:it’ll feel and look offwhen we watch thefootage.

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Split into two groupsSome of you will be sharing your current designswith half of our guests and talking to them abouttheir experiences/asking what they might want.The other half of you will be capturing some video.For the first portion of this activity, all our guests willtalk to the print group while the video folksget set up and ready.

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And now we workCheck with me if you have questionsor concerns. Otherwise, let’s focuson our work and see what we can doin the next hour-and-a-half or so.

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Break time!411/511 students, it’s officially break time. Be backin about 15 minutes.ACE students, thank you so much for coming in andfor your help with our project! We really appreciateit!

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ACE: we’ll do that again next week…With any luck, we will have anotherset of ACE students to work withnext week, so that should help uswith gathering material and gettingboth our video project and the restof our print work taken care of.

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Transitioning: GraphicsFor today, you did a slew of readings on graphicsand how to best use them in your both print anddigital work. If you have questions from thereadings, we can talk about that, but what I wantedto do first is give you a little different slant on things(like I did last week with the color stuff) by addingmy voice to the mix in your heads. :)

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Dr. Phill presents:the 6 things we do with graphics In a society so intimately tied to the nature of the visual, we use graphics to do all sorts of heavy lifting in our design (and in our rhetoric). The following slides enumerate some common ways that we use graphics and offer examples of each.

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Use 1: to EnticeYou will find that many graphics do more than oneof the things on this list, but one of the most visceraluses of any graphics is to entice the audience, togive them something pretty, interesting, or aweinspiring to look at while considering yourdocument.This can take many forms.

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Use 2: to IllustratePerhaps the most obvious use of animage is to illustrate something thatis being written about, or literally toshow the “thing” being shared.

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Use 3: to InformSometimes graphics exist simply to offer informationthat the text either cannot share verbally or which ismore user-friendly, or more dramatic, to be seen inimage form.

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Use 4: to BrandGraphics– particularly here logos–are one of the most powerful waysto brand a product. In a worldcurrently obsessed with marketing(even on the level of the individual),branding is a key element in currentvisual rhetoric.

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Use 5: to Visually EnhanceSometimes graphics are present because they “spiceup” a design that is otherwise bland. It’s from thisparticular use that we get the terminology “splash”art. These images usually do one of the other thingsas well, but their primary use is to enhance a layoutor otherwise make the visual presence of somethingmore pleasing.

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Use 6: to UnifyNothing pulls together a design likethe use of a nice, crisp, clean graphicthat can span the majority of adocument or can through color orshape draw together what seem likedisconnected elements.

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Let’s use the rest of classTo work in our teams. Think about what you need tocoordinate, what questions you have, where thingsare right now, etc. I will circulate to check in and askquestions.

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For Next WeekRead: iMovie TutorialsIn class we will do some iMoviework, and we’ll talk with someadditional ACE folks, then we’llwork, work, and work some more.